- Petitioning The Right Honourable Stephen Harper
This petition will be delivered to:
Prime Minister of Canada
The Right Honourable Stephen Harper
Leader of the Opposition, New Democratic Party
The Honourable Thomas Mulcair
Leader of the Liberal Party
The Honourable Justin Trudeau
Leader of the Green Party
The Honourable Elizabeth May
Minister of Citizenship and Immigration
Chris Alexander
URGENT: Withdraw Citizenship Act Bill C-24
Multiply your impact
Turn your signature into dozens more by sharing this petition and recruiting people you know to sign.
Within the next few weeks, the Canadian Government could pass Bill C-24 which will make sweeping changes to the Citizenship Act, affecting all Canadians.
International law states that citizenship grants full membership in Canadian society, and is permanent once established.
Bill C-24 allows the government to arbitrarily strip someone of their status, which is morally, legally and ethically wrong.
Bill C-24, the Strengthening Canadian Citizenship Act (SCCA) is fraught with such ethical problems.
The bill will:
- make it much more difficult to obtain citizenship,
- will make obtaining citizenship more expensive
- will replace Judges as decision makers with Immigration officers, and
- will make it easier for citizenship to be revoked or stripped from Canadians
What is wrong with the Bill?
Bill C-24 will . . .
- Extend the costly language test to include those aged 14 - 64 (currently, only those aged 18 - 55 take the test);
- Give Immigration officers authority to deny citizenship if she or he as much as speculates that the applicant may not reside in Canada in the future;
- It will increase the residency requirement during which an applicant must be in Canada as a Permanent Resident from 3 to 4 years and does not allow the applicant to count any of the time spent in Canada prior to obtaining permanent residency;
- Triple the application fee price;
- Removes a person's right to appeal a negative citizenship decision;
- Strips the right to an oral hearing in front of a judge for those who are having their citizenship revoked (it will make so this decision is made by a bureaucrat without holding a hearing);
- Strips citizenship from those who did not obtain citizenship by birth if an official believes that the person never intended to live in Canada;
- Strips citizenship from dual citizens even if they were born in Canada if convicted of certain crimes, even if those convictions occurred outside Canada.
Canadians have the right to fair citizenship.
To:
The Right Honourable Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada
The Honourable Thomas Mulcair, Leader of the Opposition, New Democratic Party
The Honourable Justin Trudeau, Leader of the Liberal Party
The Honourable Elizabeth May, Leader of the Green Party
Chris Alexander, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration
The Right Honourable Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada
The Honourable Thomas Mulcair, Leader of the Opposition, New Democratic Party
The Honourable Justin Trudeau, Leader of the Liberal Party
The Honourable Elizabeth May, Leader of the Green Party
Chris Alexander, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration
Dear Chris Alexander, Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism and
Prime Minister Stephen Harper:
We the residents and citizens of Canada,
Draw the attention of the House to the following:
THAT,
The Bill C-24, the Strengthening Canadian Citizenship Act (SCCA) which is currently before the house is fraught with problems. In brief the Bill will make it much more difficult for many to obtain citizenship, will replace Judges as decision makers (being arms length and independent) with Immigration officers in many cases (who are not independent, being employees of Citizenship and Immigration Canada) and Bill C-24 will also make it much easier for citizenship to be revoked. Given that Citizenship grants full membership in Canadian society, and is considered under international law to be permanent once established, allowing the government to place barriers in the way of obtaining it, and allowing the government to arbitrarily strip someone of this status is morally, legally and ethically wrong.
THEREFORE,
Your Petitioners respectfully call upon Parliament to:
Withdraw Bill C-24, and hold meaningful and broad community consultations before tabling future bills regarding citizenship.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper:
We the residents and citizens of Canada,
Draw the attention of the House to the following:
THAT,
The Bill C-24, the Strengthening Canadian Citizenship Act (SCCA) which is currently before the house is fraught with problems. In brief the Bill will make it much more difficult for many to obtain citizenship, will replace Judges as decision makers (being arms length and independent) with Immigration officers in many cases (who are not independent, being employees of Citizenship and Immigration Canada) and Bill C-24 will also make it much easier for citizenship to be revoked. Given that Citizenship grants full membership in Canadian society, and is considered under international law to be permanent once established, allowing the government to place barriers in the way of obtaining it, and allowing the government to arbitrarily strip someone of this status is morally, legally and ethically wrong.
THEREFORE,
Your Petitioners respectfully call upon Parliament to:
Withdraw Bill C-24, and hold meaningful and broad community consultations before tabling future bills regarding citizenship.
Sincerely,
[Your name]
